77 quotes
Now his principal doctrines were these. That atoms and the vacuum were the beginning of the universe; and that everything else existed only in opinion. (trans. Yonge 1853)
My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
If any one hearken with understanding to these sayings of mine many a deed worthy of a good man shall he perform and many a foolish deed be spared.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
[I would] rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.
Freeman (1948)
(Democritus said he would rather discover a single demonstration than win the throne of Persia.)
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Of all things the worst to teach the young is dalliance, for it is this that is the parent of those pleasures from which wickedness springs.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self-sufficing, and therefore with her feebler but trustworthy [resources] she wins the greater [meed] of hope.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the [influences] that reach and impinge upon it.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Verily we know nothing. Truth is buried deep. (Another translation: "Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well." Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers R.D. Hicks, Ed.)
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
Men in their prayers beg the gods for health, not knowing that this is a thing they have in their own power. Through their incontinence undermining it, they themselves become, because of their passions, the betrayers of their own health.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
If a cone is cut by surfaces parallel to the base, then how are the sections, equal or unequal? If they are unequal then the cone would have the shape of a staircase; but if they were equal, then all sections will be equal, and the cone will look like a cylinder, made up of equal circles; but this is entirely nonsensical.
In the weightiest matters we must go to school to the animals, and learn spinning and weaving from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the birds,—from the swan and the nightingale, imitating their art.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907)
By convention (νόμω) sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real